Expats In China Like The Pay, But Fail To Fit In With Locals

For many expats, China has proven to be a good place to make money and climb the career ladder, a new global survey has shown. But on the flip side, a majority of that same group have said it's also difficult to fit in with the culture and socialize with local residents, not to mention the country's ever-present pollution.

The Expat Insider survey for 2015 by InterNations, the world’s largest network for people who live abroad, said that China is perceived as one of the world’s best destinations for work and career opportunities. In the Job and Career subcategory of the Working Abroad Index, China ranked No. 3 overall, just behind Malta and the USA.

Expats in China are said to be generally happy with their pay packages. Three out of four expats reported being satisfied with their financial situation and almost nine out of ten regard their disposable household income as enough – or even more than enough – in terms of supporting their lifestyles.

“China has become a popular destination for those who want to work abroad,” the organization's co-founder Malte Zeeck said in the report. “Three out of four respondents in China are overall satisfied with their jobs, and career prospects are quite high as well.”

For the annual survey, InterNations polled more than 14,300 people across 170 nationalities and living in 195 countries or territories.

A separate report by consulting firm ECA International recently said that expatriate compensation packages are increasing in China, with total remuneration for an middle manager now worth over $276,000 per year on average.

However, the survey also highlighted a common problem. Expats often feel that they fail to fit in with the local culture and make friends outside the expat community. Only half of those surveyed say that they feel at home in China, and the country ranks 56th out of 64 in the Ease of Settling In Index.

“While expats are pretty positive as far as working in China is concerned, they tell a different story when it comes to settling in and feeling at home in their country of residence,” the report said.

While most expats find locals to be friendly, only a third find it easy to actually befriend them. The language barrier is one if the the key reasons why many foreigners have such a hard time finding local friends, with 81% of respondents saying Chinese is difficult to learn. Instead, almost half of the polled international professionals said they mainly socialize with other expats. (Half of the respondents in China were from five Western countries: the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Australia and Canada.)

Growing environmental problems and pollution is also of great concern for expats living in China. The quality of the environment was rated positively by only 5%. According to a report by UniGroup, carried by the Wall Street Journal previously this year, concerns over pollution are starting to translate into falling numbers of expats choosing to live there – twice as many people moved out of China last year than moved in.